.
"Clay Cole don't know diddley."
...but, you just gotta love Bo
Discography
Bo Diddley (1958)
Go Bo Diddley (1959)
Have Guitar Will Travel (1960) [2]
Bo Diddley in the Spotlight (1960)
Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger (1960)
Bo Diddley Is a Lover (1961)
Bo Diddley's a Twister (1962)
Bo Diddley (1962)
Bo Diddley & Company (1962)
Surfin' with Bo Diddley (1963)
Bo Diddley's Beach Party (1963)
Still crazy after all these years, Bo, who would have turned 80 this year, was slowing down on Doctor's orders, complicated by a recent stroke, heart-problems and diabetes. Bo died June 2, 2008 at home in his compund near Gainsville, Florida. [See Bo Diddley Obituary]
We remember BO DIDDLEY as an Inductee into the Fifty Plus Club, one among the handfull of stars still performing after 50 years. Bo Diddley's signature song and first hit recording, "Bo Diddley" was released in 1955.
The many sides of the legendary rock 'n' roll guitarist with his famous box guitar
Every morning at 4 a.m., Bo Diddley walks into a ramshackle studio on his 76-acre property outside Gainesville to write music. Several electric guitars are scattered on the floor. The studio, a double-wide trailer, is crammed with recording equipment, a synthesizer and electronic gadgets of obscure types. Piled in every corner are boxes of tapes of Bo Diddley songs never released.
Mr. Diddley, 79 sits forward on a hard chair and lifted a blond-finished guitar, made for him by a music store in Gainesville. His enormous fingers, wrinkled and strong, grazed the strings. Hooked into an electronic gadget, the strums became the sounds of a small orchestra: strings, chimes, a brassy horn, an organ and a gospel piano, providing a thumping echo of Bo Diddley songs.
''I'm still jumping, doing all right,'' he said, grinning. ''I'm just trying to figure out how to stay in the game. America will drop you like a hot potato, I don't care how big you are. You're big one day and the next day, right away, you're a has-been. Just trying to figure it all out. Maybe I just began.''
Bo Diddley is a musical pioneer who has influenced generations of rockers, and with electrifying stars like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, he reshaped popular music half a century ago. But despite helping build rock's rhythmic foundations, he has never enjoyed quite the success and recognition of his two contemporaries. All three received the first Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) Icon Awards as founders of rock 'n' roll. But as a patriarch, Mr. Diddley rivals and in some ways surpasses his two contemporaries.
Performers as diverse as Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen have been inspired by the syncopated Bo Diddley beat -- bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp -- which has been traced to myriad sources, including the drumbeats of the Yoruba and Kongo cultures. At the Beatles' first American news conference in 1964, a reporter asked John Lennon, ''What are you most looking forward to seeing here in America, John?'' He replied, ''Bo Diddley.''
Bo Diddley never quite conquered the racial divide. Bo was one of the stars of my 1960 Clay Cole Christmas Show at the Brooklyn Paramount; the racially misinformed Bo Diddley gave me trouble, trying to unite our African-American entertainers to take a stand against the white acts. The idea fizzled because there was no racial divide -- Ray Charles, Little Anthoy, the Drifters and the rest simply coddled and humored him. As George R. White, author of "Bo Diddley: Living Legend" wrote: "Diddley remained firmly rooted in the ghetto. Both his music and his image were too loud, too raunchy, too black ever to cross over." His records were frequently played on jukeboxes and at dances but far less on the radio. Television appearances were rare. There were no movie offers.
Mr. Diddley was often uncompromising. In his dressing room before an appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," on which he was set to sing "Bo Diddley," Mr. Diddley said that the show's producers asked him to sing Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons," then a huge hit. Mr. Diddley claimed not to know it, so cue cards were quickly written. Mr. Diddley said he thought he was now to perform two songs, not one, and he began with "Bo Diddley." Later he drawled, "Man, maybe that was `Sixteen Tons' on those cards, but all I saw was`Bo Diddley.' " Sullivan was enraged. "He says to me, `You're the first black boy' - that's a quote - `that ever double-crossed me.'
"I was ready to fight. I was a dude from the streets of Chicago, and him calling me a black boy was as bad as him saying`nigger.' They pulled me away from him because I was ready to fall on the dude." He said Mr. Sullivan told him that he would never work in television again. "I was scared," Mr. Diddley acknowledged. The final insult, he said, was that he was told to return his $750 fee for the show.
Bernard Weinraub wrote: "In fact, Mr. Diddley's next television appearance was seven years later on "The Clay Cole Show" on WPIX-TV in New York. He didn't appear again on a network show for a decade, until he performed on "Shindig" in 1965.
Birth name Ellas Otha Bates
Also known as Ellas McDaniel
Born December 30, 1928
Origin McComb, Mississippi, USA
Genre Rock and roll, R&B, Blues
Vocalist, Guitarist
Labels, Checker, Chess Records
Official Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Biography
Induction Year: 1987
Induction Category: Performer
Bo Diddley (born December 30, 1928) - He will turn 80
Bo Diddley broke new ground in rock and roll’s formative years with his unique guitar work, indelible African rhythms, inventive songwriting, and larger-than-life persona. He will forever be known for popularizing one of
the foundational rhythms of rock and roll: the Bo Diddley beat, in his namesake song, “Bo Diddley,” as well as other rockers like “Mona.”
This distinctive, African-based 5/4 rhythm pattern (which goes bomp-bomp-bomp bomp-bomp) was picked up from Diddley by other artists and has been a distinctive and recurring element in rock and roll through the decades. It can be heard on Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” (later covered by the Rolling Stones), Johnny Otis’s “Willie and the Hand Jive,” the Strangeloves’ “I Want Candy,” the Who’s “Magic Bus” and Bruce Springsteen’s “She’s the One,” to name just several songs.
In 1963, Buddy Holly's version of "Bo Diddley" provided him with a top 10 post-humous hit in the UK, peaking at No. 7 in the summer of that year. The B-side of Holly's 1958 hit, "Oh Boy", namely "Not Fade Away" also featured the classic Bo Diddley beat, and inspired The Rolling Stones version of 1964, which was their first release in the USA, and peaking at No. 7 in the UK.
On May 17, 2007, Bo Diddley was reported to be in intensive care in Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, following a stroke during a concert at Council Bluffs, Iowa. He has a history of hypertension and diabetes, and tests indicated that the stroke affected the left side of his brain, impairing his speech and speech recognition.
While recovering from the massive stroke and heart attack, he came back to his home town of (McComb) for the unveiling of a plaque, on the National Blues Trail devoted to him. The plaque stated he was "acclaimed as a founder of rock and roll." He was not supposed to perform but as he listened to the music of local musician Jesse Robinson, who sang a song written for this occasion, Robinson sensed Bo Diddley wanted to perform and handed him a microphone. This was the first time Bo Diddley performed publicly since his stroke and heart
For many years, Bo Diddley's personal affairs are attended to by his close friend and manager Margo Lewis (Chief officer of Talent Consultants International) in New York. Through the years, she has managed to pay-off Bo Diddley's past delinquent debts to the IRS and to make Bo Diddley a very wealthy man. What money that was not forthcoming (Bo estimates $8 to $10-million dollars) from Chess Records, has long been matched by his TCI bookings.
Bo on Alan Freed's Big Beat TV show
Source: N.Y. Times, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Talent Consultants International,
George R. White, author of "Bo Diddley: Living Legend," and Bernard Weinraub
This page was last updated: November 30, 2008
Bo Diddley's 16 All-Time Greatest Hits (1964)
Two Great Guitars (with Chuck Berry) (1964)
Hey Good Lookin' (1965)
500% More Man (1965)
The Originator (1966)
Super Blues (1967)
with Muddy Waters & Little Walter
Super Super Blues Band (1967)
with Muddy Waters & Howlin' Wolf
The Black Gladiator (1970)
Another Dimension (1971)
Where It All Began (1972)
Got My Own Bag of Tricks (1972)
The London Bo Diddley Sessions (1973)
Big Bad Bo (1974)
20th Anniversary of Rock & Roll (1976)
I'm a Man (1977)
Ain't It Good To Be Free (1983)
Bo Diddley & Co - Live (1985)
Hey...Bo Diddley in Concert (1986)
Breakin' Through the BS (1989)
Living Legend (1989)
Rare & Well Done (1991)
Live at the Ritz (1992)
with Ronnie Wood
This Should Not Be (1993)
Promises (1994)
A Man Amongst Men (1996)
Moochas Gracias (with Anna Moo) (2002)
Dick's Picks #30 (1972 5-song Live Session with The Grateful Dead) (2003)
1955 Bo Diddley introduced and perfected certain rhythms to rock and roll.
They were beats that have stuck around, even making an appearance in big-time pop music ("I Want Candy" being the operative one). A little bit of Bo Diddley goes a long way, but everyone should own at least one "Bo Diddley" CD collection.
His influence on early rock and roll should not be discounted.
Nike TV Commercial: Bo Knows (1989)
Super jock Bo Jackson proved he could play pro football and baseball, but then plays guitar badly. Bo Diddley had the now--famous punchline:
"Bo ... you don't know Diddley!"
Bo Diddley with his support group:
The Debbie Hastings Band and (top, center) Margo Lewis, his manager and TCI agent.
Burch Ray's Bo Diddley Tribute
"Bo Diddley Goes to Nashville"
